Saturday, May 20, 2017

Chinese Ideograms

One of the enjoyable benefits of teaching is I get to learn new things, too. A husband and wife duo in the library workshop are Chinese. The husband had learned Chinese calligraphy, and he showed me some ideograms.

He showed me how to count and used Roman numerals to show similarities. The ideogram to the right of the Roman numeral 8 means Ten Thousand Years. It is used to wish a long life. Like Spock from Star Trek's "Live long and prosper."

Since we were making greeting cards, he wrote out I love you. He explained the middle symbol is the ideogram for heart. It looks like a heart, too.

Then he wrote the ideogram for Luck. He said in many Chinese businesses, you would see this symbol hung upside down. The reasoning is luck would be attracted and would stay bringing the business and owner good fortune. Similar to the idea a horseshoe is hung up like the letter "U". Luck runs out if a horseshoe is hung upside down.